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闱 (traditional 闈) is a phono-semantic compound: the door radical 门 encloses the phonetic 韦. The radical suggests architectural spaces, and historically the character primarily denoted the small side doors of a palace or the secluded inner quarters for women in a traditional residence. Later its meaning shifted to the examination halls of the imperial civil service system, and it came to refer to the spring and autumn examination sessions, moving the character's associations from domestic privacy to formal bureaucratic and educational settings.
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